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Old 11-14-2017, 12:26 AM
Mouse Mouse is offline
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Join Date: May 2016
Location: Music City
Posts: 581
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The law of diminishing returns is why some cables are 25 vs 2500.
A Camry may cost 20,000 while a Bugati can cost 1.5 million.
A Bugatti isn't 75 times the better car than a camry, but it does cost 75 times the price.

What makes a cable more expensive are several things.
Copper Purity is one. What's the cost difference between Chinese pot copper, 99% copper, 99.9%, 99.99% and 99.99999 like Nordost?
Some have some wild technology like silver plated wires and contacts. Some cable companies use pure silver which has better conductivity instead of copper.
There are some technology like oxygen free copper which I know little about. The gauges are different too.
$100 cables may sound a lot better than a $25 cable, but a $2,000 cable may not sound any better than a $1900 cable. Don't let the cost of a cable keep you from getting your dream stereo or home theater.

If you're on a budget but like the hobby I'll suggest Blue Jeans cable. My $127 pair of speaker wire from blue jeans sounds much better than my $500 cable pair from my audioquest dealer. (not to say that audioquest is that bad, there is just a lot more to the story and I don't want to derail your thread)

Do I believe cables change the sound? YES! In cases where something is wrong or ill fitting the sound difference is amazing. In cases where you had a decent cord and you bought a better cord the difference can be subtle. I think it's worth exploring, but the change in sound probably won't be better than just upgrading to new speakers or room treatments.

But I like my speakers and I like my McIntosh so I'm not changing those two things. I'm toying around with new cables though, and so far I've had some positive benefits.
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